OXLADE FAMILY HISTORY
"Dwellers in the Valley of the Oaks"
The Old Religion
The Early Catholic Martyrs (1534 - 1539)
Henry VIII's break with Rome produced few objectors at first. Kings had quarrelled with popes before and few of Henry's subjects were prepared to take issue with him, whatever their personal opinions. At the time most English people were broadly Catholic in outlook and, apart from the important issue of papal authority, there was little doctrinal disagreement between the King and Rome.
The two most famous men publicly to oppose the King were the Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal John Fisher, and the former Chancellor, Sir Thomas More. Both were canonised by the Pope (that is, formally declared to be saints) in 1935. Relics of both are in Hendred House at East Hendred in the Vale of White Horse.
This house, built in the late Middle Ages, is mentioned many times in this book. It is the home of the Eyston family who have always been Catholic. They are the keepers of Cardinal Fisher's ebony walking stick and Sir Thomas More's timber and silver tankard.
Hendred House
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Drawing based on an old engraving
Henry VIII's break with Rome arose from his unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Pope to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Cardinal John Fisher was her confessor and a fierce critic of the King. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, London in June 1535 because he had refused to take the Oath of Succession. To take it meant recognising the right of succession to the throne of any children the King might have by Anne Boleyn. It also meant acknowledging the King's supremacy in matters of Church authority. Cardinal Fisher would do neither.
Cardinal Fisher's successor was a Dominican friar called John Hildesley. He belonged to the Beenham branch of the Hildesley family of East Ilsley on the Berkshire Downs. The name Hildesley is an old version of Ilsley.
The main line of the Hildesley family remained Catholic after the Reformation. Bishop Hildesley, however, was an enthusiastic supporter of the King's religious policy. It had been his job to ensure that the Dominican friars of England swore allegiance to the King as Head of the Church in England.
Having been a friar, Bishop Hildesley was not wealthy. Five days after he was consecrated he requested various possessions of his executed predecessor, including a walking staff. The evidence suggests that his wish was granted, and that after his death the staff passed to his Catholic relatives.
One of the last Catholic Hildesleys, Mary, married Robert Eyston. She died in 1709 at the age of thirty and was buried in the Eyston aisle in the parish church of East Hendred. The first record of the Cardinal's staff being at Hendred House is nine years later, at about the time that the Hildesley's last interest in East Ilsley was being sold. It was then that the former Mary Hildesley's brother-in-law Charles Eyston, known as the Antiquary, bequeathed the Cardinal's staff to his son Charles. It has been at Hendred House ever since.
Sir Thomas More, the subject of the play and film 'A Man for All Seasons', was executed on Tower Hill a fortnight after Cardinal Fisher and on the same pretext. He was a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford and had an international reputation as an intellectual. His most famous book 'Utopia' described an imaginary place with an ideal social and political system, and gave a new word to the English language.
Sir Thomas More favoured religious reform, but within the framework of the Catholic Church. His friends included fellow Catholic reformers such as the Dutch theologian Desiderius Erasmus and Dean John Colet of St Paul's Cathedral, London.
In 1814 Maria Teresa Metcalfe, a descendant of Sir Thomas More, married Charles Eyston, a great grandson of the Antiquary. Through this marriage the martyr's tankard came to Hendred House. The present owner of Hendred House, Thomas More Eyston, is a great great grandson of Charles and Maria Teresa Eyston.
East Ilsley, once the home of the Catholic Hildesleys, is only five miles south-south-east of East Hendred. In the north wall of the north aisle of the parish church of St Mary is a group of three early Victorian stained glass windows. The window on the right depicts Erasmus, that on the left Dean Colet. Given pride of place in the middle is their friend Thomas More, honored by the Church of England as a reformer who died for the unity of the Church.
Although Sir Thomas More had been an Oxford scholar, neither he nor Cardinal Fisher was closely associated with Berkshire or southern Oxfordshire. The two most prominent local men to be executed for opposing the King were Sir Adrian Fortescue of Brightwell Baldwin and Abbot Hugh Faringdon of Bere Court, Pangbourne.
Sir Adrian Fortescue ***was a first cousin of Anne Boleyn. His house at Brightwell Baldwin*** probably stood in Brightwell Park (2 miles WNW of Watlington). His first wife was Anne Stonor who inherited Stonor Park (5 miles SE of Watlington). This estate is mentioned many times in this book and, unlike many of the others, is regularly open to the public.
Shirburn Castle
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Drawing based on an old engraving
Shortly after the move to Shirburn Castle, Sir Adrian's second wife, Anne (née Reade), gave birth to their second son. The child's Godparents included Thomas Reade, probably he of Barton, Abingdon whose daughter Catherine married Thomas Vachell, son of the commissioner who suppressed Reading Abbey.
Although he was Anne Boleyn's cousin, Sir Adrian Fortescue did not agree with the King's religious policies. The month after Anne's marriage he became a lay brother of the Oxford Dominicans. He had already joined the Order of St John of Jerusalem which led to his arrest and imprisonment for about six months in the Marshalsea Gaol at Southwark. His wife and two servants lived with him in prison. One of the servants was John Horseman, probably a member of the Oxfordshire Horseman family who remained Catholic into the seventeenth century.
In 1536 Sir Adrian inserted in his Missal (Mass book) a leaflet that had been issued by the King commanding certain prayers be said by all his subjects. Sir Adrian struck out a reference in the leaflet to the King being Supreme Head of the Church in England. Sir Adrian's Missal, complete with leaflet and deletion, is still in existence.
One of Sir Adrian's sons-in-law, Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in 1537 for his part in a rebellion in Ireland. The following year Sir Adrian had to buy back his first wife's tomb and pay for its transfer from the suppressed Bisham Abbey*** to Brightwell Baldwin church. ****
He was arrested again in February 1539. This time he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and attainted by Parliament for treason, sedition and refusing allegiance to the King. It seems that there was no trial and no further details were given of his alleged crimes. In July 1539 he was beheaded on Tower Hill. The Pope beatified him (that is, awarded him the title 'Blessed') in 1895.
When Sir Adrian Fortescue was executed the suppression of the abbeys and priories had been proceeding for several years. The King's main aim was to replenish his treasury while reinforcing his claims of supremacy over the Church. First the smaller houses had been closed, including Studley Priory on the edge of Ot Moor and a string of establishments on the Thames: Rewley Abbey in Oxford, Dorchester Abbey, Goring Priory, Medmenham Abbey, Hurley Priory, Bisham Priory (reinstated briefly as an abbey), Little Marlow Priory and Ankerwick Priory near Slough.
Sir Adrian Fortescue (executed in 1539 for opposing the King ) was a first cousin of Anne Boleyn. His house at Brightwell Baldwin probably stood in Brightwell Park ( 2 miles WNW of Watlington). His first wife was Anne Stonor who inherited Stonor Park (5 miles SE of Watlington).
The Fortescues moved into Stonor in 1499. This led to a long dispute with the Stonor family which was settled by Henry VIII about the time of his break with Rome. Under the terms of the settlement Sir Adrian had to surrender Stonor House but retained part of the estate. He also gained all the Stonor lands in Gloucestershire, Devon and Kent. These were much greater in size than Stonor Park itself.
Source: http://www.hadland.me.uk/tvp/tvp4.htm
Henry Okely
10 Oct 1558 John son of Henry OKELY Christened Brightwell Baldwin near Watlington
23 Nov 1560 Henry son of Henry OKELY Christened Brightwell Baldwin near Watlington
Chancery Proceedings
Name: Henry Oxlade Place: Oxford Date: 1538-1544 Volume: 8 Page: 11 Bundle: 943
Henry Oxlade, Richard Brandon, and others, parishioners of Aston, v. Nicholas Astley, vicar of Aston.: Usury and illegal trade in grain with the money of Adrian Foskewe, knight, attainted, whose steward defendant was...
53. Hugh Unton To Sir William Stonor
[ ? 26 October, 1479 ]
Right worshipfull Maister, I recomaunde me unto you. And Syr, the case is so that yong Wagge nowe apon Saterday last passet hasecomyn and take possession in a corner of a feld of a trew wedow and bedewoman of yours, Robert Oxlades moder, concernyng the title of all hir place: the which woman hase ben in pesibill possession thes iij score yeres and more, as her sone Robert can more pleynly enfourme your maistership. And Syr, the lond is entaylet as fayre as eny can be unto the heires males, and hase been thes C. yeres. Syr, I beseche you be hir gud Maister in hir rigth, and to hir power she shall deserve hit. Wagge makys gret manasse to distres hir catell within thes iij or fawre dayes. Syr, and ye send me a bill to withstond him, I will do my power: for as by parall she has enfeffet your maistership, M. Cotesmore, Herre Doget, me and William Est. And Syr, I beseche you hold me excuset that I come not unto your maistership: I am a litill diseset for to ride. And almighty God preserve you, my lady, and all your housholde, the Monday afore Simon and Jude.
Your servaunt, Hugh Unton.
To my right worshipful Maister, Sir William Stonor, Knyght
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